For Juneteenth I want to tell you about Sarah Boone: inventor of the modern ironing board, and the second Black women to receive a US patent.
Sarah was born into slavery in Craven County, North Carolina in 1832. Legally barred from education, her grandfather secretly taught her instead. In 1847 she married freedman James Boone, and was herself freed for unknown reasons. They moved to New Haven, Connecticut before the civil war, and had 8 children together.
James worked as a brick mason, and Sarah worked as a seamstress and dressmaker. While other inventors of the 19th century had been slowly improving the design of ironing boards, Sarah found them inadequate for the job, so she set about making something better.
She wrote in her very detailed patent,
"The purpose of the invention is to produce a cheap, simple, convenient and highly effective device, particularly adapted to be used in ironing the sleeves and bodies of ladies’ garments."
Her ironing board was narrow, curved, symmetrical, and tapered so that the narrowest parts of a garment could fit around it flatly without ceasing while easily turning the garment for each side. It was padded so the fabric would drape more gently, also reducing ceasing. It had collapsible legs that started towards the center of the board so that there was plenty of room for clothes to fit around it while also being mobile and easy to store. It was easy and cheap to manufacture so that it would be accessible for anyone to buy. Especially important when Black people were (are) both poorer and more harshly judged for their appearance.
She submitted she her patient in July of 1891, and obtained United States patent number 473,563 in April of 1892. 132 years later we are still using Sarah Boone's design with very few changes.
She died in 1904 at the age of 72 and is buried in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.
So next time you iron something, admire how well thought out and purpose built Sarah's design is. Black excellence and freedom made that possible. If she'd remained in slavery she would never have been able to design it or patent it.
I'm thinking about her story today and mourning the generations of Black innovation we never got because of slavery. All that brilliance held back by such an evil and dehumanizing institution. All the Black innovation held back today due to the legacy of slavery and ongoing racism. The inmates who are still legally enslaved in this country and not given a chance to thrive and create. I'm thinking about how reparations could help other descendents of slavery have the money to work on their ideas. (Or just live other fulfilling lives because no one should have to be exceptional to be respected.)
I'm also thinking about how vital Sarah's ironing board has been to activist organizing. They're cheap, flat, long, fit in small crowded rooms, and historically everyone had one. The humble ironing board was vital to the Civil Rights movement, union organizing, and the queer rights movement among others. Ironing boards are an unsung hero of Black liberation.
Ironing boards are so simple that we never think about the care that went into their design or the woman behind them. But we should. And now you know the story.
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